Ben Goldsborough MP: written questions
322 published records · newest first.
Written questions
Railways: Norwich and CambridgeDepartment for TransportTabled 12 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 31388More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of the frequency of rail services for commuters between Norwich and Cambridge.
Answer: Greater Anglia continuously reviews passenger numbers and service levels and in collaboration with Network Rail, adjusts timetables where there is the case to do so and where it is possible. In addition, Network Rail is currently carrying out a route stud...
Answered 26 Feb 2025
Original Parliament recordTaxis: DisabilityDepartment for TransportTabled 12 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 31386More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that disabled travellers are not discriminated against when using taxi services.
Answer: Disabled people should be able to travel easily, confidently and with dignity, like anybody else and the Government understands the importance of taxi and private hire vehicle (PHV) services in making this possible. Consistent with other service providers...
Answered 26 Feb 2025
Original Parliament recordRoads: Rural AreasDepartment for TransportTabled 12 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 31385More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to help improve highway safety on rural lanes.
Answer: We have awarded local authorities £185.8 million of funding between 2017 and 2024 through the Safer Roads Fund to improve the safety of England's most high risk 'A' roads. To date, it has funded 445.3 miles of rural roads which make up 62.4% of all funded...
Answered 24 Feb 2025
Original Parliament recordElectric Vehicles: Charging PointsDepartment for TransportTabled 12 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 31384More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to improve access to electric vehicle charging points in rural communities.
Answer: A widespread, easy-to-use and reliable network of public chargepoints is crucial to support the electric vehicle transition. In 2024, nearly 20,000 public charging devices were added to the network, making it a record year. There was particularly strong ...
Answered 24 Feb 2025
Original Parliament recordRoads: Rural AreasDepartment for TransportTabled 12 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 31383More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to improve the rural road network.
Answer: The Government takes the condition of both rural and urban roads very seriously and is determined to help local authorities tackle the maintenance backlog that results from years of underinvestment by the previous Government. The Department for Transport ...
Answered 25 Feb 2025
Original Parliament recordVeterans: South NorfolkMinistry of DefenceTabled 12 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 31377More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make an estimate of the number of former armed forces personnel living in South Norfolk constituency.
Answer: The House of Commons Library has an online data dashboard for constituencies which includes data on Veterans taken from the most recent censuses in Great Britain. This is available here:https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/constituency-data-uk-armed-force...
Answered 24 Feb 2025
Original Parliament recordDormant Assets SchemeDepartment for Culture, Media and SportTabled 12 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 31376More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much money released by the Dormant Assets scheme has been allocated to (a) England, (b) East Anglia and (c) Norfolk in each year since the scheme began.
Answer: As of 2023/24, a total of £826 million has been allocated from the Dormant Assets Scheme to England, with DCMS responsible for this portion of funding. This is broken down by year as follows: 2011/12: £39.9 million; 2012/13: £41.6 million; 2013/14: £70 mi...
Answered 28 Feb 2025
Original Parliament recordPrisoners: Vocational GuidanceMinistry of JusticeTabled 12 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 31331More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to ensure prisoners on the secure estate have access to a careers mentor.
Answer: From April 2025, new Careers, Information, Advice and Guidance (CIAG) contracts will launch which will set consistent high standards for providers. Providers will be working on a national specification, and this will be mandated in all prisons. The CIAG S...
Answered 24 Feb 2025
Original Parliament recordPrisoners: ExerciseMinistry of JusticeTabled 12 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 31330More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to ensure prisoners on the secure estate undertake the minimum time for physical exercise.
Answer: We recognise the importance of prisoners having access to purposeful activity, including education. We know that this significantly reduces the likelihood of re-offending – by up to nine percentage points.After the previous Government ran the prison estat...
Answered 24 Feb 2025
Original Parliament recordOvercrowding: Secure AccommodationMinistry of JusticeTabled 12 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 31327More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to reduce overcrowding on the secure estate.
Answer: This Government inherited a criminal justice system in crisis, with prisons running at over 99% capacity and on the brink of total collapse. If our prisons overflowed, police would have been unable to make arrests and we would have faced the total breakdo...
Answered 25 Feb 2025
Original Parliament recordHealth: PrisonersDepartment of Health and Social CareTabled 12 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 31324More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that all prisoners receive an initial health screening when arriving on the secure estate.
Answer: Every prisoner, whether they are new into prison or have been transferred between establishments, undergoes a health screen upon arrival. This is in line with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidance and covers immediate health pro...
Answered 27 Feb 2025
Original Parliament recordPrison AccommodationMinistry of JusticeTabled 12 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 31321More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the amount of time prisoners spend in their cells.
Answer: We recognise the importance of prisoners having access to purposeful activity, including education. We know that this significantly reduces the likelihood of re-offending – by up to nine percentage points.After the previous Government ran the prison estat...
Answered 24 Feb 2025
Original Parliament recordHealth: PrisonersDepartment of Health and Social CareTabled 12 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 31320More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to provide safety and health screenings for new arrivals to the secure estate.
Answer: Every prisoner, whether they are new into prison or have been transferred between establishments, undergoes a health screen upon arrival. This is in line with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidance and covers immediate health pro...
Answered 27 Feb 2025
Original Parliament recordMental Health Services: PrisonersDepartment of Health and Social CareTabled 12 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 31319More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many secure mental health beds were available on the secure estate in each of the last ten financial years.
Answer: The data requested is not centrally held nor published by NHS England.
Answered 27 Feb 2025
Original Parliament recordInland Border Facilities: DoverDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 22 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 25899More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether there were any financial implications to the Exchequer of the sale of the White Cliffs Business Park that hosts the Bastion Point Inland Border Facility site on 4 September 202
Answer: Defra considers this to be commercially sensitive information and therefore may not be released.
Answered 30 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordImport Controls: Disease ControlDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 22 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 25898More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of vehicles entering the Port of Dover being under no obligation to attend Sevington Border Control Point if asked to do so on
Answer: Consignments called in to Sevington Border Control Post (BCP) for an inspection will have completed the necessary customs declarations and pre-notifications. These goods will not be legally cleared for sale or use within the UK until they have checked and...
Answered 30 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordMeat: SmugglingDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 22 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 25897More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many tonnes of (a) dangerous and (b) illegal meat were intercepted at the (i) Port of Dover, (ii) Port of Felixstowe, (iii) Port of Liverpool, (iv) Port of London, (v) Port of Grim
Answer: Please see the table below for total seizures of illegal meat, for full year on year. We are unable to provide further levels of detail as we do not release details of the location of seizure; this information could risk undermining border security, by pr...
Answered 30 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordAnimal Products: Import ControlsDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 22 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 25896More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many products of animal origin spot checks were undertaken at the (a) Port of Dover, (b) Port of Felixstowe, (c) Port of Liverpool, (d) Port of London, (e) Port of Grimsby and Immi
Answer: Our checks are intelligence-led and based on biosecurity risk. To protect the integrity of this approach, we cannot share granular data on inspections.
Answered 30 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordAnimal Products: Import ControlsDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 22 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 25895More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much was spent on products of animal origin spot checks at the (a) Port of Dover, (b) Port of Felixstowe, (c) Port of Liverpool, (d) Port of London, (e) Port of Grimsby and Immingh
Answer: Our checks are intelligence-led and based on biosecurity risk. To protect the integrity of this approach, we cannot share granular data on inspections
Answered 30 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordInland Border Facilities: DoverDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 22 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 25894More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 29 October 2024 to Question 10797 on Inland Border Facilities: Dover, what the operating status is of Bastion Point Border Control Point as of 22 January 2025
Answer: The site at Bastion Point is currently retained in a non-operational state. The Government will explore further options for the site in the future.
Answered 5 Feb 2025
Original Parliament recordAnimal Products: ImportsDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 22 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 25893More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many times the Timed Out Decision Contingency Feature has been used for medium-risk animal products in each month since February 2024.
Answer: Individual Local and Port Health Authorities will hold local data and will be able to identify when the Timed Out Decision Contingency Feature has been used.
Answered 3 Feb 2025
Original Parliament recordMeat: SmugglingDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 22 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 25892More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many tonnes of (a) dangerous and (b) otherwise illegal meat have been intercepted by the Dover Port Health Authority in each of the last 10 financial years.
Answer: Please see the table below for total seizures of illegal meat year on year. The figures quoted are seizures from all ports who had returned seizure data to us from September 2022 onwards as part of Defra African Swine Fever programme. This does not reflec...
Answered 17 Mar 2025
Original Parliament recordHomelessness: NorfolkMinistry of Housing, Communities and Local GovernmentTabled 20 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 25056More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what proportion of the total Government budget to tackle homelessness was allocated to allocated to Norfolk County Council in this financial year.
Answer: Homelessness funding across Norfolk is provided through allocations to Norwich, North Norfolk, King's Lynn & West Norfolk, South Norfolk & Broadland, and Breckland. Individual programme allocations for the 2024/25 financial year can be accessed us...
Answered 27 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordDental Services: NorfolkDepartment of Health and Social CareTabled 14 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 24024More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve access to NHS dentistry in (a) South Norfolk constituency and (b) Norfolk.
Answer: The Government plans to tackle the challenges for patients trying to access National Health Service dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to the areas that need them most. To rebuild den...
Answered 16 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordNorfolk and Norwich University Hospital: Accident and Emergency DepartmentsDepartment of Health and Social CareTabled 14 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 24023More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average waiting time was in the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital emergency department in each of the last ten years.
Answer: The data is not available in the format requested. Provisional data for the median average time spent at National Health Service trust emergency departments is published by NHS England each month, and is available at the following link: https://digital.nh...
Answered 20 Jan 2025
Original Parliament record
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